zooplankton
/ˈzəʊ.ə.plaŋ(k).tən/
"zooplankton" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“zooplankton” is uncommon English (frequency #59,142 among 2,810 “Z” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,142
- frequency rank, English
- 2,810
- “Z” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Free-floating small protozoa, crustaceans (such as krill), etc. and the eggs and larvae from larger animals.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | zooplankton |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈzəʊ.ə.plaŋ(k).tən/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #59,142 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “zooplankton” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
zooplankton is uncommon English at frequency #59,142 among 2,810 “Z” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈzəʊ.ə.plaŋ(k).tən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Free-floating small protozoa, crustaceans (such as krill), etc. and the eggs and larvae from larger animals.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for zooplankton, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From zoo- + plankton. The correct English form is zooplankton, spelled Z-O-O-P-L-A-N-K-T-O-N.
Definition
- 1Free-floating small protozoa, crustaceans (such as krill), etc. and the eggs and larvae from larger animals.
Etymology
From zoo- + plankton.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “zooplankton”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is Z-O-O-P-L-A-N-K-T-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈzəʊ.ə.plaŋ(k).tən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.